1957-65 Imperial Limousines by Ghia for Chrysler

[8E45E]

11 hours ago, 3macboys said:

I just discovered this thread, I had posted some info on these cars a few weeks ago on the Chrysler section under:

1956 57 58 Chrysler Imperial C70 C56 Limousine Info

 

All of the documents that I had have been sent to the AACA Library and hopefully they are now in reception of it all.

 

I missed that above thread.

 

I can bet the "LS2-13676 Montreal SO21500 - there is mention of one other car to Montreal possibly S021499 and 2 to Toronto SO21450 second number U/K " as stated in the literature is part of the fleet for Queen Elizabeth's & Prince Phillip's Royal Tour which included the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.   A photo of it is shown in the fifth post from the bottom on the previous page.   Not sure who owns those Imperials now.

 

Craig

Edited November 7, 2019 by 8E45E (see edit history)

[3macboys]

And here I was thinking that the Montreal cars we destined for the mafia.  Actually I thought that it made sense that those would be the destinations for these cars only because they were the two main business centres in Canada at the time, but if in fact at least one of them was used on the Royal tour it would explain why someone in the corporate office would want to preserve these notes.  

[8E45E]

4 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

And here I was thinking that the Montreal cars we destined for the mafia. 

If it was TEN YEAR later, you could have been right, though not sure if the FLQ would have driven something so ostentatious.  It would have to have been a special BULLET PROOF model, especially when our current Prime Minister's father instated the War Measures Act to fight them!

 

Craig

[3macboys]

Just came across this picture of the Queen in one of these cars:

 

[Packard Don]

That is a Cadillac.

[3macboys]

On 2/14/2020 at 10:10 PM, Packard Don said:

That is a Cadillac.

Absolutely correct - I was stuck looking at the open back

[Mike McCandless]

Why not bring up an old thread :). I have a 58 and 63 Imperial Ghia Limo. What's odd on the 63, it has a 62 chassis. That means different brakes, transmission, dash, etc. Yet the body is absolutely 63. I'd love to get a 60-61 Ghia if anyone knows of a restored one for sale. 

 

Mike

[Packard Don]

Typically the Ghias were built in batches and often the later ones got updated to the new model appearance without changing the chassis so not odd at all to have a '62 chassis, especially as there were no '62 Ghias. To get ready for the '63 style, they likely sent what they had in as far advance as possible. Also, they were on the convertible chassis so not only do you need to look at earlier chassis parts but on some you must specify that it is a convertible. On my 1964, that was true of the driveshaft support as they were different between convertible and closed cars but also the exhaust system as the closed cars (at least on '64 and '65) had single exhaust while the convertibles had dual. The '61 Ghia would have the '60 styling.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Packard Don (see edit history)

[Mike McCandless]

Of all the 63's I can find reference to, none of them have 62 chassis. There is a huge difference in the two as park was introduced in 63 and platform brakes (thank god) were removed. I can't wait to dig into it and see what else I can find out. I would be shocked if this wasn't the first one built for 63, maybe done months ahead of time if it had a special use, who knows. 

[Packard Don]

No two Ghias were the same so as you suggested possibly you have one of the early ones for 1963.

[Mike McCandless]

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26810/lot/16/

 

This one appears to be done similar to mine. Has a 62 dash in it, but is obviously a 63. The last 3 of the vin is 300 vs mine being at 155. Haven't found another interior example yet to compare against.